Since I quit the sea and sat down to write this narrative I have read somewhere that the Duke of Wellington was invited to witness a trial of the Congreve rocket soon after it was invented and perfected. The duke was on horseback, surrounded by a large and handsomely uniformed staff; the group was assembled at the top of a small hill which commanded a view of the plain where the experiments were to take place. A few rockets had been let off, and the duke seemed well satisfied with their performance. Finally one rocket, at its discharge, took an erratic course, and came directly into the midst of the distinguished party, where it fizzed and sputtered while darting here and there, and then, dashing off to one side, exploded. If the explosion had taken place directly in the group, some of the officers would probably have been killed or wounded; as it was the horses were frightened, and fully one-half the party were thrown to the ground and had to walk home, or wait till their horses were caught and brought to them. From that moment the Duke of Wellington was never favorable to the use of the Congreve rocket. But I am getting away from my story. As the news spread about Gibraltar of the saving of the Warwick and those whom we found on board of her, the officers and crew of the Washington became the objects of considerable attention. Captain Dawson did not neglect to take the proper steps for obtaining his claim for salvage; he employed a lawyer of Gibraltar to attend to the matter, and it is proper to say that the lawyer did his duty faithfully. The claim was considerably reduced by the court, but nevertheless it was a handsome compensation, and everybody concerned on our side of the affair felt well rewarded for his trouble. A special award was made to Mr. Johnson and the six men who went with him on board the Warwick; this was done, we understood, at the instance of the Governor of Gibraltar, who seemed rather more kindly disposed toward us than was usually the case with English officers toward Americans at that time. When any of the crew of the Washington obtained liberty to go on shore they were treated kindly, and very often, too, by the British sailors and landsmen. One effect of the hospitality of Gibraltar was that those of our crew who were not abstemious from drink generally returned to the ship much the worse for their excursion. One afternoon several of us, including Haines and myself, had permission to go ashore. It was very hot that day, and we found it rather fatiguing work to walk about.